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HNS comes from behind in regular season finale
BLOOMFIELD - Hartington-Newcastle used an opportunistic defense Thursday, a stubborn offense, and a big night in special teams from Kayne Gratzfeld to turn back Bloomfield 34-20 here.
The Wildcats trailed 20-14 heading into the fourth quarter, but came to life to put up 20 points in the final frame to claim the victory.
“We played terrible on offense, we had a lot of bad snaps and we couldn’t get anything going through the air,” Hartington-Newcastle coach Rusty Fuller said. “Luckily, we forced six turnovers and a clutch performance from Kayne Gratzfeld in special teams sealed the deal for a win.”
Gratzfeld kicked off three times, all for touch backs and punted five times for just under 40 yards per punt to flip the field on the Bees.
Cole Rosener intercepted a Bloomfield pass late in the game and bolted 35 yards for a touchdown to finish off the Bees and get to the final score.
Bloomfield scored first to take a 6-0 lead, but Cole Heimes scored the first of his four touchdowns in the game to even things up then with a successful conversion, the Wildcats took their first lead 8-6 in the second quarter.
The Bees scored late in the second on an 8-yard pass play to retake the lead at the break, 14-8.
Heimes got back in the end zone, this time from five yards away then hit Carter Kelly on a conversion pass to get the lead back, 16-14.
The Bees got a long run from Jacob Smith for a 37-yard score to get the lead back 20-16 heading into the final frame.
Heimes, who would finish with 107 yards on his 28 carries, found pay dirt for the third time, this time from the 2 yard line, and the Wildcats had the lead for good.
Heimes would score on another 5-yard dash across the goal line then Rosener’s heroics late in the game settled the score at the 34-20 final.
The Hartington-Newcastle defense got 19 tackles from Cole Heimes; 17 from Brayden Lammers, including two tackles behind the line of scrimmage; 13 from Aiden Collier; 11 from Rosener who also had two picks and a fumble recovery; 10 from Ashton Wakeley and a fumble recovery and eight from Lincoln Grutsch.
Ayden Rosener had six tackles and a fumble recovery and Kelly had a tackle for loss and recovered on Bloomfield fumble.
The Wildcats will embark on the Class D1 Playoffs Oct. 24 when they entertain Elmwood-Murdock-Friend.
“EMF is battle tested and they have a couple of good players,” said Fuller. “They were state runnerup last year so they are familiar with the playoffs and have had a lot of success. We will need to play a sound game in all three phases to win.”
Hartington-Newcastle is the No. 5 seed in the east bracket with its 7-1 record while EMF brings a 4-4 record to Russ Hochstein Field for a Thursday, 6 p.m. kickoff.
H-N (7-1) 0 8 6 20 - 34 BLO (4-4) 6 8 6 0 - 20 FIRST QUARTER BLO: Brock Jeannoutot 3 run, conversion no good. 0-6 SECOND QUARTER H-N: Cole Heimes 3 run, conversion good. 8-6. BLO: Jacob Smith 8 pass from Beau Eisenhauer, Jennoutot run. 8-14. THIRD QUARTER H-N: Heimes 5 run, Carter Kelly pass from Heimes. 16-14. BLO: Jacob Smith 37 run, conversion no good. 16-20. FOURTH QUARTER H-N: Heimes 2 run, conversion good. 24-20. H-N: Heimes 5 run, conversion no good. 30-20. H-N: Cole Rosener 35 yard interception return, conversion no good. 36-20. Hartington-Newcastle Individual Passing: Cole Heimes 4-15 49. Hartington-Newcastle Individual Receiving: Will Feilmeier 1-27; Cole Rosener 2-10; Jason Heimes 1-12. Hartington-Newcastle Individual Rushing: Cole Heimes 28-107 4TD; Cole Rosener 6-5; Jason Heimes 1-(-4). Hartington-Newcastle Individual Tackles: Ty Opfer 3; Keatyn Arens 1; Cole Heimes 19; Ayden Rosener 6 1FR; Cole Rosener 11 2INT 1FR; Carter Kelly 4 1TFL 1FR; Brayden Lammers 17 2TFL; Jason Heimes 7 1TFL; Ashton Wakeley 10 1FR; Aiden Collier 13; Kyptin Collier 1;
